Litigants in Person – the horror!

Nicola Williams & Co published a thoughtful article on Flawbord earlier this week about the difficulties caused by and to litigants in person through their inability to secure legal advice and representation: Horrendous. Amongst other things the article looks at publicly available stats on the numbers of cases, noting along the way that those published [...]

Out On A Technicality

I complain often enough about the LSC finding pathetic technicalities upon which to base the rejection of my claims for payment for work done (most recently a five figure sum which relates to work between 6 and 18 months ago on a single case, but more frequently the rejection of a smaller claim because I [...]

Book Review: Legal Aid Handbook

This review is a guest post written by  Julia Belyavin, barrister at St John’s Chambers, Bristol.   Legal Aid Handbook 2011/12, Ed Vicky Lang & Simon Pugh (Legal Action Group) I’ll be honest, when I was reminded that I’d said I’d review the Legal Aid Handbook 2011/12, my heart sank.  It was definitely a ‘what was [...]

Media Access & Reporting

Thanks to Adam Wagner at UKHR Blog for alerting me to today’s* publication of “A joint publication of The President of the Family Division, the Judicial College and the Society of Editors” entitled “Media Access & Reporting”, which comes just as I was about to put finger to keyboard and begin to type a blog [...]

Doing Violence to Legal Aid

I’ve noticed another teensy glitch in the grand plans to save money through what has now become fondly known as “the LASPO car crash“. And it’s this: Respondents to non-molestation orders (harassment / domestic violence injunctions) rarely qualify for legal aid. The rationale is that such use of public funds is not justifiable where they [...]

Legal Aid Reform – Comment

A link to some more stuff I said elsewhere on the topic of legal aid reform, and more importantly to what some other people (including a not-so-anonymous blogger) said about legal aid reform: Falling on deaf ears, By Jean-Yves Gilg, Giles Peaker, Lucy Reed & Juliette Frangos

Trying To End Things

I’ve had two very different articles published today, both about attempts to end things: an article on the bringing to a close of children proceedings through the making of orders under s91(14) Children Act 1989: Section 91(14) Orders – A Never Ending Story? (Family Law Week), and an article on the attempt to bring an end [...]

Summary of Legal Aid Reforms to Family Law

Nearly Legal has provided an excellent summary of the legal aid reforms in respect of housing and other areas of law: Ask not for whom the bill tolls. Due to other commitments I have not been able to put together a full analysis of the Bill insofar as is relates to family law. That will [...]

Ministerial Statement on Legal Aid

WRITTEN MINISTERIAL STATEMENT MINISTRY OF JUSTICE Proposals for the reform of punishment, rehabilitation, sentencing and legal aid The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Kenneth Clarke QC): Today I will lay before Parliament the Government’s responses to two important consultations on the future of the justice system – Breaking the cycle: effective punishment, [...]

Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill Published

The Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPOB for not-so-short?) was published earlier today. And then rapidly un-published. However, the ever excellent ilegal was quick off the mark and had saved it before it was magicked away again. You can read the bill here. From a quick whizz through insofar as it is relevant to [...]